


Pride is Immortal

by SleepingReader



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Immortal Jaskier | Dandelion, M/M, Pride Parade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24777925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepingReader/pseuds/SleepingReader
Summary: The colors are blinding, the music shaking everyone's bones and staying as a hum in ears, even when the music faded. The sheer joy you can feel all around you as thousands and thousands of people are finally with their true family. Finally home.For Geralt of Rivia, it's a little loud before he buys himself some earplugs.But he's at the Pride Parade for a good reason.The showstopper is a drag queen show.Geralt had smiled slightly when he had seen who was performing live for all the acts, and had bought a ticket. Jaskier was his friend, after all.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia & Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 10
Kudos: 164





	Pride is Immortal

It was as if the world had exploded. Only instead of death and destruction, it rained glitter and rainbow colored confetti. It was the 50th anniversary of the city's first Pride Parade, and the city went all-out. Big floats sailed down the canals, each with their own special attraction. The theme this year was Medieval, and the attendants of the parades and the entire Pride had done their very best. From tiny little shorts asking the onlooker if they ´art nasty' to seven knights dressed in rainbow armour.  
The colors were blinding. The music shaking everyone's bones and thrumming in ears. The sheer _joy_ you could feel all around you as thousands, millions of people finally came _home._

For Geralt, it was a little much. His ears weren't used to the many walls of sound, and his nose couldn't find a scent to rest on. It was only when he bought some noise-cancelling earbuds from a nearby vendor when he finally could feel the tension ease a little.  
He let a little girl pet Roach, and knelt down to her when she tugged on his sleeve. After a shy and whispered conversation he stood back up with a small flag painted on his cheek.  
'Bisexual' he had said when she had asked, but there was a whole spectrum of genders out there these days, and he wondered vaguely whether he should change his sexuality to 'whomever'.  
Roach, now a pitbull with a rainbow collar, strolled calmly at his side. She enjoyed sniffing around the tracks left on the ground. No monsters to fight here. Just Pride to enjoy, and a show to watch.

And what a show it was going to be! As the hours turned towards evening, the stagehands began to set up what was possibly the best drag show anyone had ever seen.  
Geralt had smiled slightly when he had seen who was performing live for all the acts, and had bought a ticket. Jaskier was his friend, after all.

The two had been travelling together on and off for… A lot longer than Geralt had expected, and then a lot longer after that. When he had asked, Jaskier had just given him a saucy wink and a finger to his lips. Geralt had later found out that the bard had no fucking clue how he was still around.  
He was quite sure Yennefer knew, but she enjoyed rubbing it in Jaskier's face and didn't want to tell Geralt either. Meanwhile, the witchers back at Kaer Morhen had taken up bets.  
(Those bets ranged from 'fucked a fae' to 'is a fae' to 'I think he just refuses to die')  
So there Geralt was, Roach on her leash next to him, paying attention to any sort of monster smells and wagging her tail.

Jaskier, meanwhile, was helping to look for a very specific wig.  
'It just flew off, darling! I couldn't help it!' Mary-Go-Round was saying, throwing wigs over her shoulder while putting on lipstick at the same time. Jaskier held up what seemed like the 18th wig, and Mary squealed in delight and kissed him on the cheek. She then sprinted off on her high heels to re-do her lipstick in the mirror. Then she retrieved a handkerchief and handed it to Jaskier to wipe his face.  
He kept the kiss-mark on.

It was turning dark, and millions of rainbow-colored lights sprung to life all around the festival. They were illuminated on the street once again by the holographic shimmering confetti from the Pride Pinata that had been smashed on stage a couple hours ago. To the delight of the people standing behind him, Geralt kept needing to bend down to pull confetti flakes off of Roach's nose.

Then, with a struck chord and a bright flash of light so bright that the entire city was illuminated for a split second, Jaskier was on stage, flanked on either side by 6 drag queens. The queens wore medieval dresses, styled to be as revealing as they could be. A clever eye might have seen a gown that looked a little similar like Queen Calanthe's, way back when. But Geralt's eyes were only on Jaskier.  
While the bard had been dressed... revealing from the moment he met him, Jaskier had stepped up his game. He wore what could only be described as a rainbow doublet crop top. Underneath, the same sort of puffy breeches Geralt had seen around the Pride this year. But Jaskier being Jaskier, the bard had embroidered 'Enemy Of The State - Friend To Humanity' on the back.

'Show us some ankle, Novigrad!!!' Jaskier shouted in the microphone, strumming another chord on his electrical lute. Roach started wagging her tail.  
'Bow before your queens!' The square went wild, shouting and throwing confetti as the drag queens started to make their way down the stage, showing off their costumes and starting their opening dance. Jaskier introduced them all.  
'...Mary-Go-Round, Phata Morgana, La-Dee of the Lake, Churnin' Butter, Sharpay Blade, Ora Nate, Queen Anne the Filth, Hella Specific, Princess Charming… and of course Renée Essance!'

What followed was the most inventive show Geralt had seen in a while. He suspected one of the queens might be a sorcerer, for the colored birds floating around the audience were nothing short of pure, joyful, illusory magic.  
The queen that changed her costume so quickly, however, was not a sorcerer. Geralt's medallion never vibrated once when she was performing, and he enjoyed seeing how her costumes changed from simple maid's costume to full-on queen's gown to wedding dress, to what could only be described as leather lingerie. Everything was executed flawlessly, though he wondered if the death-drop at the end hadn't broken something.

Throughout the acts, Jaskier's outfit had become more dishevelled, until he was covered in kiss-marks (the queens all kissed him when they went off-stage) and his doublet crop top was unbuttoned almost to the center of his chest, which Geralt tried very hard not to think about.

The finale was Jaskier's showstopper. He had found an entire band of electrical musical instruments, and was shredding ABBA on his electrical lute, accompanied by an electric violin, a keyboard player and a drummer. In the years Geralt had known him, Jaskier had taken a lot of jobs (dog groomer was the worst), but he always kept coming back to being a musician of some sort.  
Currently, he was in part-time employ of a travelling renaissance faire, where he roleplayed as travelling bard. His other job involved a lot of YouTube videos, which had landed him this particular gig.  
While Jaskier sang his last song of the night, his eyes fell on Geralt's. He smiled, and started putting on more of a show, prancing around on stage and winking at the audience.  
The show ended like it began. A large flare of bright light illuminated the many faces in the square, the drag queens struck a pose and rainbow metallic confetti burst out of the cannons. Jaskier tried to get down from the stage to get to Geralt, but the crowd took it as an invitation to crowd-surf, so Geralt had to wait a little bit before his bard was deposited in front of him.

Close up, Geralt could see Jaskier was wearing black metallic eyeliner and a hint of lipstick himself.  
'YOU MADE IT!' Jaskier yelled, throwing his arms up in the air and giving Geralt a big hug.  
'Wouldn't have missed it.' Geralt replied fondly, to which Jaskier replied: 'WHAT? COME BACKSTAGE, IT'S QUIETER THERE.'  
He took Geralt's hand and led him and Roach to a room behind the stage, where some drag queens were in various state of undress.  
'Oooh, a Witcher!' One called from a nearby chair, and promptly tossed a coin at Geralt, who caught it deftly.

When the noise of the outside had quieted down and most of the queens were gathered around Roach, who had presented her belly for petting, Jaskier and Geralt finally had time to talk.  
'How long has it been?' Jaskier asked.  
'How long ago should you have died?' Geralt retorted.  
Jaskier laughed. 'What is time, anyway.'  
'Good to see you, Jaskier. Or is it something else these days?'  
'I'll change my name if you change yours.'  
'Never going to happen.'  
Jaskier smiled happily.  
'So, Drag queens and YouTube.' Geralt began lamely.  
'Oh, fuck yeah.' Jaskier said. 'They're so _alive_ , Geralt. Not like all those idiots at that dog salon last century. 'Hoo I want my boy poodle to be blue how dare you make him purple?'' Jaskier said, putting on a high voice for the last part. 'Not my fault blue wasn't his color.'  
Geralt found himself making the exasperated fond face he always made whenever Jaskier was talking.  
'So tell me, Geralt. How's my singing? Three words or less.'  
'Needed more glitter.'  
Jaskier gasped dramatically.

'You want more glitter, darling? Go see the street theatres.' One of the queens piped up from behind a cloth she used to take off her makeup. Jaskier looked up at Geralt, pleadingly.  
'Not a chance.'

They walked together through the winding streets where the local art students and the students from Oxenfurt had banded together to make little plays. Jaskier was roped into quite a few, and a couple more begged Geralt to be the handsome knight.

When they walked towards a food truck, Jaskier looked back fondly at the last play. A young shy couple was being roped into playing a mermaid and a handsome princess who saved her, and Jaskier could see them getting more and more into character.

'That's what I like most about these theatres.' he mused. 'Even when you're a face in the crowd here, they make you feel like you're someone special. I wish more people did that. Being someone that makes everyone feels like somebody.'

Geralt suddenly felt the warm sun and the breeze on his face of a mountain, a long time ago. He had not done well then, but was determined to do so now.  
'You did that, tonight. Got the audience involved. They loved it.'  
'Is that an actual compliment? Geralt of Rivia, are you _flirting with me_?' Jaskier joked.  
'Have been for seven decades, but thanks for noticing.' Geralt said back, smirking at Jaskier's shocked expression.  
Jaskier huffed and folded his arms. 'Well, I win anyway.'  
'Why?'  
'I've been flirting with you for three centuries.'  
'Yeah, I kno- You fucking _what?_ '  
'Oh, look! They've turned the fountains on!'  
Jaskier grabbed his hand and ran to the fountain, which was displaying every Pride flag colors in sequence, with people cheering when theirs came up.  
Jaskier turned to let go of Geralt's hand, but Geralt didn't let go.  
'Do what pleases you, right?' he asked the bard, the lights of the panromantic flag reflected in his silver hair and his golden eyes.  
Jaskier just grinned and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my little tale  
> Hope this straight ace didn't fail  
> Goodnight, hearts so dear  
> I wish you all a prideful month  
> And an even prideful year


End file.
